Hi everyone, I’m back with an upgrade. My new username is KhunRyeroam, previously known as ThaiboyNMexico. Did anyone miss me?.......... hmm……….I guess that’s a no. Again I apologize if some people got offended by the non-aviation thread I started a while back . Please pity me . I’m a tortured personality who needs to hate something in order to love it. Besides, I have lived in sunny Mexico for some time. Now that I’m here in four-season Argentina, I get cranky and peevish in the cold weather.

Buenos Aires is a looot of fun. For the first time in my life, I get to wear my duffle coat in July—because it’s winter down here in southern hemisphere. But one thing I found missing in this wonderful metropolis was exotic food. The Argentine palate seems to have zero tolerance for spicy food: you give ’em a drop of Tabasco and their tongues catch fire. And, trust me, I don’t eat as spicy as Thai-Thai people do. I must admit though that beef down here is the best in the world. There’s nothing like a clean-cut piece of Bife de Chorizo. But, seriously, how many times per day can you eat steak, pasta, pizza, milanesa, and empanada? Oh, yeah, I forgot the dulce de leche (caramel), the most popular sweetener here.

A Thai-American (with a pinch of Mexican) that I am, I was having withdrawal symptoms after four months without ethnic dishes. I started dreaming of menudo, pozole, dim-sum, sushi, and Thai curry floating about in my dreams. One night early July, I woke up in terror and decided: “¡Ya basta! That’s it…I’m going to Mexico to have jalapeños and umbrella drinks under the sun.” I surveyed ticket prices on several Internet travel bookers. I looked on despegar.com.ar and saw that I was not the only one escaping the cold—tickets to Mexico from Argentina were running out and the prices were going up. So I gave Mexicana.com a try despite a very bad experience we had when we migrated from Mexico to Argentina this spring. On Mexicana.com, a round-trip Buenos Aires-Mexico City can be had for 1400 USD, which was very expensive.

Since I usually spend at least 1 hour a day on travel booker websites (just for the fun of it), I happen to know that Mexicana offers promotional deals for flights between North America and South America. Imagine this: for a one-way upgrade from Economy to Clase Ejecutiva using miles, Mexicana charge 17,000 miles for flights to Buenos Aires that originate in the US (connecting in Mexico City) whereas Mexican travelers who want to upgrade from Mexico City directly to Buenos Aires would have to cough up 30,000 miles!!! If you don’t believe me, see it for yourself here. I guess Mexicana does this because it has to remain competitive in the North American market. Or maybe, they’re trying to deter Mexican flyers from using their miles to upgrade on MEX-EZE, which is one of the very few long-haul flights offered by Mexicana.

Anyhow, using that gimmick, I then tried searching EZE-JFK-EZE with stopover in Mexico City. And guess what? The price came down 400 USD, from 1400 USD to 1009 USD! In other words, I can fly from Buenos Aires to New York City (and have all the Asian food that I’ve been craving for), drive to Washington, D.C. to visit my brother and his family, and then have a four-day stopover in Mexico all for 1009 USD!?! …Of course I booked it right away. I’d be a fool not to. No second thought. Then I had a restful sleep for the first time...I was gnawing steamed pork ribs, chicken feet, and penis—pork penis, people, don’t think too hard—in NYC Chinatown in my dream that night. It was a really yummy dream.

I had to go pay for my ticket at the new Mexicana office in Buenos Aires. This location is much more visible than the old one. If you are interested in strolling around BA and see all the airline offices, please consult the one-of-a-kind trip report written by Latinplane here.

Diagonally across from Mexicana office is a Farmacia Similares. Farmacia Similares is a Mexican enterprise that sells discounted generic drugs. The initiative is spearheaded by this Mexican philanthropist. (When I lived in Mexico, I always went to this chain to get my cheap Viagra . Now Dr. Simi is everywhere in Latin America. Its slogan is “Just the same…but cheaper”. I thought it was funny to see this slogan next to Argentine and Mexican flags. The devaluated Argentine pesos and lower cost of living here compared to Mexico makes you think that Dr. Simi was comparing Argentina to Mexico: “Just the same…but only cheaper.”

First-leg: EZE-MEX

The day before our departure, I got an e-mail from Mexicana saying that the flight would be delayed for two hours. I arrived at the airport at normal check-in time. When I was on the taxi, I saw that the aircraft was sitting there waiting on the tarmac. So, what are we waiting for? Well, I was told later that, for safety reason, the crew required more resting time. I guess the returning crew arrived in real late or something. Nevermind. I was glad to walk around Ezeiza. I’ve flown out of Ezeiza on Mexicana twice and did a night flight to IAD with United. With this two-hour delay during daylight, I got to see different flights departing and arriving out of this South American aviation hub.

-Lufthansa 747 going to Frankfurt. That thing was just enormous. It was huuuuuge. Whoever said size didn’t matter? Lufthansa was also giving away free newspapers and magazines at the check-in area…. muahahahaha ….I went to hog all the expensive, foreign newspapers…that was so third-world of me…I threw them all upon arrival in Mexico City in the end…hehehe). Thank you LH for your generosity.

-Mexicana sitting and waiting for the crew.

-Here it comes my Mexicana 767. EVERY SEAT was occupied. Some standby passengers had to go home. Mexicana is doing so well on this route. I heard they’re topping up the daily flight to 2 times daily.

-Special edition of Vuelo magazine celebrating Mexicana’s 85th Anniversary. Feliz Cumpleaño, Mexicana . Every aviation enthusiast needs to get a copy of this by the way. It is simply the best inflight magazine ever, at least for me. If there were a Pulitzer Prize category for inflight magazines, this edition of Vuelo would be the undisputed winner. Both the text (in English and Spanish) and the photos were extremely well-crafted.

-Mexicana’s suppliers also took this opportunity to publish ass-kissing ads, all wishing Mexicana well (as long as Mexicana renews contracts with them). This one was really funny. Makes me think of a.net. “To make airliners.net alive, you need a lot of nuts!”

-Lunch…

-Dinner

Side note: Mexicana was bought by Grupo Posadas, which is a Hotel group in Mexico known for their Fiesta Americana product line, making MX independent from grupo Cintra, which had previously owned both AeroMexico and Mexicana. Effects of management change are now visible.

1. Headrest cover is no longer used on Mexicana. At first I thought this was temporary because they ran out of those disposable headrest covers. But I started noticing Velcro tapes ridded off completely from the seats. Eww…that’s what happens when you have a hotel chain running an airline: bug problem! Soon you’ll see people complaining of dust mite bites on Mexicana flights.

2. Wine glass got reduced to this…they pour you 5 cL of wine as if it were cough syrup. Is this how you’re celebrating your 85th birthday? That’s pretty sorry, MX. :

3. Safety-wise, Grupo Posadas is downgrading an otherwise safe and good airline into a cheap inn. Look at this overhead compartment that’s patched up with jagged vellum tapes. I think they should have at least used professional-looking tapes, come on.

The overhead compartment was just aesthetic. But here’s a real safety concern. This oxygen mask compartment was hanging loose and they patched it up with the same kind of tapes. You can actually see oxygen tubes oozing out. The worst being that they actually assigned passengers to sit there!

4. A positive change, however, is that Mexicana now offers more hard liquor than ever. You can have so many things: vodka, rum, tequila, brandy, whiskey, beer, all for free . And these aren’t cheap spirits either. Then, after the meal, they even offer you digestive drinks after you’re done eating, either anise or amaretto. I thought that was nice! I think Mexicana is one of a very few Latin American airline to offer digestive drink in economy on international flights. I don’t know about LAN. Again…this is what happens when you have hotel chain running an airline. Grupo Posadas seemed to have carried the Mexican beach hotels’ philosophy onboard: get those gringos and Mexican vacationers boozed like there’s no tomorrow!

Well, after, 3 glasses of vodka and that generous shot of amaretto, I was singing “La Cucaracha” in my seat until I fell asleep. ……….

Second-leg: MEX-JFK (the following day)

After one-night sleepover in Mexico City, we headed back to MEX the next day to check in for flight MX 2 on an old A319 with no IFE, MEX-JFK.

-MX 2 boarding gate (changed twice)…flying out of MEX is like playing hide-and-seek sometimes.

-The crowd is mixed. Lots of businessmen in their 30’s and in their clean-shaven scrupulousness (yummy). Lots of Mexican students. The rest were Mexican workers with their kids. One real critique I have against MX crew is that they seemed mean and rude with this last group.

-Chinese dim-sum on Mott Street ….this was speechlessly good. I was dumping all these dumplings in my mouth…so quick I finished all these in 3 minutes.

-Sushi full of Sashimi.

-A Martian American burger at Mars 2112. To me this was just good old American burger. We had 2 burgers with 2 beers and had to pay 80 bucks. The Martian server (who was supposedly in a human form) said to me “Don’t be afraid of my true form” when he handed me the bill.

-The Color Purple, the most talked-about musical on Broadway. So painful, so joyful, so redemptive. I was crying. Everyone was crying. We paid a fortune for the seat but it was so worth it.

What can I say? We had a grand time in NYC. It truly is the Center of the Universe. If our family got sent to NYC right now—with all the expat premiums and a nice apartment next to Central Park—I’d be the happiest person on this Earth. I’d walk my dogs in Central Park, take them to the spa at the new Mandarin Oriental, then dine at all the it restaurants in Manhattan. But we were just tourists with limited means there, so we went broke, darn it. I owe so much to Discover Card right now. Gosh, who can actually afford living in NYC? It’s ever so expensive!!!

Otherwise, it was so nice to be back home in the US. Of A., where impeccable Anglo-Saxon organization and punctuality reign supreme, where pedestrians have rights over motorists (it’s the opposite elsewhere), where people really recycle, with clean streets and smooth highways to drive on, where consumers are always right. Most importantly, it’s only in the U.S. that you find peoples of all colors with, more or less, equal opportunities to succeed. Last but not least, the ethnic diversity begets epicurean diversity, i.e. all these good foods from all over the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to add some interesting information to you trip report regarding Mexicana's Vuelo Magazine.

If you had not noticed, that is actually Marylin Monroe getting out of a De Havilland Comet Jet, gracing the cover of Mexicana's inflight magazine. A special edition that commemorates Mexicana's 85th anniversary. There's actually a story to that picture: It was taken not long before she passed away in 1962. She used to visit Mexico quite often to visit the beaches as well as get away from the Hollywood spot light, often flying on Mexicana. On her last trip to Mexico (presumably when this photo was taken) she had ordered and bought a complete set of Mexican furniture to decorate her entire home in Brentwood, as she wanted to give it a Mexican motif. Unfortunately, in does days the roads in Mexico were really bad and it took so long for the furniture to arrive via road to Los Angeles that when it was actually delivered to her house in Brentwood (near Beverly Hills), Marilyn had already passed away and she never actually got to see it.

Marylin often flew on Mexicana de Aviacion on her trips to the Mexican riviera. Mexicana was Pan American's subsidiary and national sales agent in Mexico. A little bit of Mexican history there... I don't mean to hijack your trip report. I just want to add some interesting information.

Mexicana is going through the difficult realities of today's air travel environment. Perhaps the duct tape that you notice are short term measures by the company to repair things on the 767 till the plane is due back in the maintenance hangar. They use that plane a lot and it only gets one day off for maintenance. In any case, that plane is due back to its lessor REALLY soon. The other 767 replacement is already sitting at Mexicana's maintenance base being readied to be put into service.

LatinPlane[Edited 2006-08-08 09:12:03]

P.S. We really don't need to know all the weird stuff you like to eat!

Quoting KhunRyeroam (Thread starter):Otherwise, it was so nice to be back home in the US. Of A., where impeccable Anglo-Saxon organization and punctuality reign supreme, where pedestrians have rights over motorists (it’s the opposite elsewhere), where people really recycle, with clean streets and smooth highways to drive on, where consumers are always right. Most importantly, it’s only in the U.S. that you find peoples of all colors with, more or less, equal opportunities to succeed. Last but not least, the ethnic diversity begets epicurean diversity, i.e. all these good foods from all over the world !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great report! Great ending... and, yet, I cannot wait to move to the Southern Cone... Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic for huge steaks, yerba mate, and the open space of Patagonia.

Quoting Gte439u (Reply 5):Great report! Great ending... and, yet, I cannot wait to move to the Southern Cone... Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic for huge steaks, yerba mate, and the open space of Patagonia.

Oh I bet you'll enjoy Argentina alright. But if you're a Thai like me, they call you Chino every once in a while--the Chinese population here is doing extremely well with their grocery store business. I guess whatever divine interventions Argentineans receive in their physique and look, they lack in generosity. But I think this was recent. I think the Argentine psyche was greatly injured by the Tango Effect in 2001. But that doesn't mean it's a bad country, though. It's great great great country with lots of culture and natural wonders.

And, trust me, all that craving for steaks of yours? After a while, you'll be so fed up. After 3 months, just the sight and smell of parrillada will gross you out. But maybe I'm just being ethnocentric.

Quoting KhunRyeroam (Thread starter):Hi everyone, I’m back with an upgrade. My new username is KhunRyeroam, previously known as ThaiboyNMexico. Did anyone miss me?.......... hmm……….I guess that’s a no. Again I apologize if some people got offended by the non-aviation thread I started a while back

Quoting LH459 (Reply 10):Now this was a really fun report, but from you I expect nothing less! I also learned something: I had no idea that people eat pork penis.

Nor did I, but I guess he really had to put it out there, god knows for what reason!

Wow, 100% full in economy. Mexicana charges an arm and a leg for that flight since its the only non-stop option and they still manage to sell most of the seats. It must be one of their best performers! According to Ghost77, the flight will be going 12X weekly pretty soon to cope with the demand. This means that contrary to what some people think, there is a huge demand for this flight. Let's not forget that Aerolineas Argentinas flies the route a few times per week, and that LAN also steals a lot of the Mexico-Argentina traffic offering good deals via Santiago.

Rye, was the clientele a mixture of both Argentines and Mexicans? Or was it more Argentine vacationers migrating to warmer climates given that Argentina is so cold around this time?

This report is fantastic! And the replies very nicely on topic. My Thai Rye, you are fantastic with words! The cross cultural references you use are interwoven so well with your travels. Your affinity for food blends so well with destinations and past experiences. Thanks so much for an incredible, enjoyable read and nice to have you back whatever alias you'd like to use.

I can't believe that Dr. Simi is in Argentina as well... I feel soo ashamed. Poor ARgentinians, they have no reason to know from that guy. He's such a laugh here in Mexico, nobody takes him seriously... I hope haha